Film: "Deep Blue Sea" (1999). Stars Samuel L. Jackson, Saffron Burrows, Thomas
Jane, Stellan Skarsgard (104 mins).
If dolphins are the squares of the ocean, then sharks are the maritime
equivalent of the slick-haired, leather-jacketed, street-roaming thugs of the
1950s. None too bright, but lethally mob-handed.
And although the great whale has had something of a bad rep since Steve
Spielberg sent one chomping up the New England coast, its lesser-known cousin,
the mako shark, is about as aggressive, has an appetite for big meals and can
do 0-60 miles per hour in about two seconds.
So what do you not do, apart from obvious no-nos like taking a dip or
generally upsetting them?
Well, not breeding one that increases its size from 15 to 25 feet, and its
weight from 2,000 to 8,000 pounds would be a start.
But if you really must, then definitely don't genetically increase its brain
capacity by up to five times so it then has the ability to plot revenge, plant
traps and handle advanced algebra.
Aboard the off-shore marine research facility Aquatica, of course, a misfit
band of station personnel led by stroppy boffin Susan McAlester (Saffron
Burrows) and overseen by hard-nosed financier Russell Franklin (Samuel L.
Jackson) have seen fit to ignore such common sense.
So when a tropical storm conspires with a freak accident to send the facility
slowly belly-up, our hapless ensemble are trapped in steadily rising waters
containing three savvy snappers out for as much blood as they can get.
As ever in the action disaster genre, it's a spectator sport of
spot-the-survivor(s), so take your pick from Burrows, Jackson, research
physician Stellan Skarsgard ("Good Will Hunting"), holy chef L. L. Cool J.
("Halloween: H20"), hunky shark expert Thomas Jane ("The Thin Red Line"),
marine biologist Jacqueline McKenzie ("Romper Stomper") and engineer Michael
Rapaport ("Copland.")
One horror from which none escape, however, is a truly appalling script.
And such a weakness is such an unnecessary and careless flaw, because they've
got the rest pretty much spot on.
Everyone's game enough to get wet and hurl themselves about, at the mercy of
some incredibly seamless blending of animatronic and computer-generated shark
effects that really takes the advantage of advancing technology.
Director Renny Harlin knows how to deliver this tricky technical package with
a decent shock count and at a punchy pace.
And so had Jackson and his band of less well-known actors been served with
better dialogue, this could have - should have, actually - ranked as one of
the finest action-suspensers to date.
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